It's as beloved as the original trilogy, even by those that don't like Star Wars books.

Not even close.

Not by the public obviously, but they hate books in general. With fans the Thrawn trilogy are universally loved

Yeah, that's bullshit from beginning to end - the public does not "hate books," though there's clearly some kind of ceiling on how many people in the world are at all interested in reading media tie-in novels (an appetite for which does not mark one out as a member of any kind of intellectual elite, BTW)...and since Star Wars fans number in many millions and most of them have never read the "Thrawn trilogy" it's impossible for them to love it "universally."